Comprehensive treatment of the public external debt
Categories of debt treated:
Treatment of arrears as of December 31, 2012
Repayment profile:
Treatment under Ad Hoc terms
Specific provisions:
Possibility to conduct debt swaps
On a voluntary and bilateral basis, the Government of each Participating Creditor Country or its appropriate institutions may sell or exchange, in the framework of debt for nature, debt for aid, debt for equity swaps or other local currency debt swaps:
(i) all Official Development Assistance loans;
(ii) the amounts of outstanding credits, loans and consolidations, other than Official Development Assistance loans, up to 20% of the amounts of outstanding credits as of 31st December 2012 or up to an amount of 20 million SDR, whichever is higher.
The representatives of the Creditor Countries, aware of the exceptional situation of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and of the presence of arrears that puts the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in debt distress, agreed on a debt treatment to ensure its long term debt sustainability. To this end, once multilateral arrears have been cleared, representatives other than that of Japan will recommend that their Governments deliver an exceptional treatment providing a cancellation of 50% of the total of arrears due to Paris Club creditors in nominal terms in two phases. The remaining amounts will be rescheduled over 15 years, including a 7-year grace period.
Comparability of treatment provision:
In order to secure comparable treatment of its debt due to all its external public or private creditors, the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar commits to seek promptly from all its bilateral and commercial external creditors debt reorganisation arrangements on terms comparable to those set forth in the Agreed Minutes dated 25 January 2013, while trying to avoid discrimination among different categories of creditors. Consequently, the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar commits to accord all categories of bilateral and commercial external creditors -and in particular creditor countries not participating in the Agreed Minutes dated 25 January 2013, and private creditors - a treatment not more favourable than that accorded to the Participating Creditor Countries.
For the purpose of the comparison between the arrangements concluded by the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar with its creditors not listed in the Agreed Minutes dated 25 January 2013 on the one hand, and with the Participating Creditor Countries on the other hand, all relevant elements shall be taken into account, including the real exposure of the creditors not listed in the Agreed Minutes dated 25 January 2013, the level of cash payments received by those creditors from the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar as compared to their share in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar's external debt, the nature and characteristics of all treatment applied, including debt buy backs, and all characteristics of the reorganized claims and in particular their repayment terms whatever forms they take and in general the financial relations between the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the creditors not listed in the Agreed Minutes dated 25 January 2013.
Cut-off date:
December 31, 2012
Organisation of the session:
The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ramon Fernandez, Chairman of the Paris Club.
The head of the debtor country's delegation was Mr. Win Shein, Union Minister, Minister of Finance and Revenue.
